Can foreign buyers be trusted to keep their word?

Cadbury workers protested on Bournville Green in Birmingham against the Kraft takeover in 2008Times Newspapers Ltd

It was the sweets takeover that turned horribly sour, so fraught that it led to public fury, union protests and a parliamentary inquiry.

Indeed, Kraft’s hostile £11.5 billion bid for Cadbury UK more than five years ago prompted such concerns about the loss of a British “treasure”, as well as outrage over broken commitments, that it became a byword for all that is wrong about overseas buyers splashing the cash and taking the best of British home with them.

Mondelez International, as the American owner of Cadbury is now called, has never quite lived it down, still attracting criticism even today for its conduct during the takeover. Yet it is far from alone. The City and Westminster can be stony ground for many corporations anticipating…

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